“Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.”
Etty Hillesum
Hello everyone.
How are you doing? I mean really – are you all okay? I have asked the question before but it feels like the world has become an increasingly troubled place. Personally, I am worried that our very democracy is in peril. It seems that we are divided to the point of fracture. In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has renewed her call for a “national divorce,” with the country divided along party lines. I sincerely hope it does not come to that.
For most of us the political vitriol choking social media has led to either exhaustion or anger. We are either angry to the point of violence or so tired of all the wrangling that we do our best to ignore what’s going on.
For my part, I have been doing my best to work through my anger, which is why I haven’t posted in several months. I didn’t trust myself not to write something ugly. To be honest, I haven’t known what to do with my anger.
Anger can be good when it is harnessed and used positively. Most of the racial and social reforms of the last 100 years were driven by a sense of anger that things should not stay the way they were.
But unharnessed anger distorts our vision to the point that our fellow citizens, fellow children of God, begin to look like demons and ultimately like enemies. Dehumanizing those with whom we disagree makes it possible to justify our anger and the inevitable violence that follows.
Case in point: Charlie Kirk. While I did not agree with a single thing Charlie Kirk espoused and found his “conversations” with people to be one-sided and manipulative, I never saw him as anything less than human. He had every right to voice his opinions and he certainly did not deserve to lose his life because of them.
“We’ve seen multiple incidents of targeted political violence in recent years, with victims from across the political spectrum. Meanwhile, masked officers are dragging people into unmarked vans, and soldiers are patrolling American cities. Openness to violence feels increasingly normal. We have to stand against it in all forms.”
The Christian Century September 11, 2025
We are beset by violence while at the same time we long for peace.
Peace. It is more than the absence of conflict. Peace encompasses all parts of life. It constitutes a wholeness, an overall well-being. That’s why there can be no true peace without freedom, without justice, without equality, without equal rights for all.
But peace has proven to be elusive. Politics provides only partial and transient answers. To find lasting peace we will have to look elsewhere. The answer, I believe, is to look within ourselves. True peace comes from within. If we don’t have peace within ourselves, we will never have peace in the world.
As I have talked through my anger with my spiritual director, she pointed me back to my personal mystic, Etty Hillesum.
Etty was a young Dutch Jewish woman who was caught up in the horror of World War II. Instead of giving in to hatred for the Nazis who were persecuting her, instead of seeing them as demonic and less than human, she chose to see them as fellow human beings, flawed and worthy of empathy and forgiveness. Tragically, she lost her life in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.
As spiritual director Valerie Dodge-Reyna has written, “Etty came to know a love with zero conditions.”
What she chose to do is almost beyond belief. How was she able to embody such radical love and forgiveness? The answer is she went deep inside of herself and there she found God waiting.
Her story is too long to tell here, but as a young adult she journeyed from someone with no belief (“the girl who would not kneel” as she described herself) to someone who could not keep from kneeling in deep meditation and prayer. As she found peace within herself and with herself, she was able to radiate that peace to others. She was determined to be a positive presence in the world.
“I see no alternative, each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others. And remember that every atom of hate we add to this world makes it still more inhospitable.”
Etty Hillesum
If we want peace in our world, we need to follow Etty’s lead. We must start by doing something courageous: taking an honest look at ourselves. It isn’t easy. But I encourage you to go deep inside, to discover who you are, the good and the bad, the light and the dark. Accept all of it. You will need help to do that. But as you look inside you will discover, as Etty did, that God is already there waiting to accompany you on your journey. Looking at yourself honestly will enable you, with God’s help, to see those with whom you disagree as kindred spirits: flawed, imperfect and in a word, human.
“Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself”
Bo Diddley
I am still a work in progress. There are people with whom I strongly disagree and I’m doing my best to love them. I am learning to temper my anger.
As an American I believe freedom of speech is our most precious gift and we must protect it. We will never agree with everything that is said, but silencing others impoverishes us all.
As a Christian, I believe that we are called to model the sacrificial love of Christ. That love compels us to speak out against hate and injustice, to be a voice for the voiceless. Speak your truth, but do it in love. Be an agent of peace, not hate.
“Love knows what we can do. Let’s begin. Perhaps God is only waiting for our kind intention.”
Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God
Peace to you (seriously),
Mark
Divine Overtones 